Illinois Democrat State Representative Arrested for Child Porn

Rep. Keith Farnham (D), who recently resigned from his post as an Illinois state representative, was arrested for possessing child pornography, authorities reported this week.

The Democrat from Elgin, west of Chicago, resigned his 43rd District seat on March 19th, after federal ICE agents raided his home and office.

After the raid, Farnham, 66, claimed that he was resigning for health reasons. “I have been battling serious health issues for a number of years and the coming months will require my full attention,” he said in a statement.

Authorities reported finding two movies on his computer of adults having sex with preteen children. Allegedly, there were also records of sexually charged email messages Farnham exchanged with users of an online chat forum where child porn was traded.

One of the emails assigned to Farnham that was found on his computer allegedly detailed his sexual interests. One email said, “12 is about as old as i [sic] can handle.” Authorities said Farnham wrote in another email, “i [sic] love them at 6 7 8.”

The charges stated that Farnham was targeted when homeland security agents received a tip from its Cyber Crimes Center that an email address, kimdavid5582@yahoo.com, was being used to trade child porn. Investigators later identified the address as belonging to Farnham.